How much of what foreign substance is allowed in every 144 pound batch of Fig Newton cookie filling?

What quantity of bug parts are plastered on the front of the average American pickup truck?

How much of what substance was pumped out of Britney Spears' stomach during a recent ER visit?

The average American eats how many pounds of bug parts every year?

The real question is, of course, the final one: According to UC-Berkeley Cooperative Extension Specialist Vernard Lewis, the average American eats about 2 pounds of bug parts each year.

This all came about because Jonathan @ SFist swallowed a bug during his bicycle commute. Because much of the San Francisco Bay Area is so bug free, this was unusual enough that Jonathan had to research the issue. Read his findings at SFist.

The SFist article also turned me onto this cool outtake of Marlon Brando's soliloquy on bloodlust when he suddenly makes a face and gasps, "I swallowed a bug."

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Comments:

I may have gotten half my yearly allotment Friday on the ride home. Temperatures warmed up for a couple days and my ride next to the creek was bug infested. There were several times it felt like someone had thrown a couple handfuls of rice in my face. Did my best to breath through my teeth until I cleared the woods and made it back to traffic. Still, I was happy to have the water bottle handy to wash a few of the bugs down...

...jonathon actually swallowed a secret 'robotic bug' developed by evil government scientists & his thoughts are being monitored as we speak !!!...

...oh, sorry, didn't mean to get all paranoid on ya...... i just watched a u-tube vid of actual robotic 'cockroaches' mingling w/ real ones...didn't look anything like the real ones but because they mimicked the same actions, they were accepted...kinda strange...